[Grassroots-l] Health Jam 2008

[Bryan Berry]

> From: "Ixo X oxI" <ixo at myna.ws>
> Subject: [Grassroots-l] Health Jam 2008 (article and pictures)
> To: "OLPC Grassroots" <grassroots at lists.laptop.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<52bb973e0804281232s5ab06460t598406b19b1e72d8 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> For those people interested in some pictures and write-up from the Health
> Jam 2008 (Seattle, WA)
>    ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health_Jam )
> 
> http://thedaily.washington.edu/2008/4/23/nonprofit-group-visits-campus-hopes-give-one-lapto/
> 
> 
> And for a more detailed picture.
>   http://thedaily.washington.edu/photo/2008/04/23/3101/
> 
> Bonus for IRC and wiki people, can you guess which one is Seth
> (isforinsects) and Iain (iXo).
> 
> :)
> -iXo

Guys, sounds like an interesting event. I am wary that OLPC Health is
focusing on complex systems when most of the kids (and adults) in
deployments really need basic health information. They don't need a
healthcare administration system like WorldVistA or MUMPS running on the
XO, at least not in the short term. 

Kids need basic information about health and interactive learning
activities those help them really understand those ideas.

My experience working w/ university students is that they tend to start
projects that are fun for research but not related to practical
outcomes. For example, I meet many university kids that want to work on
new physics engines or porting their favorite linux app to Sugar, but
very few that want to work on Sugar's performance. They need to be
guided to the problems that need the most attention. 

If OLPC Health's goal is to do new cool things w/ the XO that are
somehow related to health, the current approach is fine. But if you guys
want to create something that is really relevant to kids at deployments,
I recommend focusing on the basic stuff.

This reminds me of an earlier discussion about porting Matlab to the XO.
Most Nepali kids who could use Matlab today or w/in a few months already
own computers and go to private schools. The kids that OLPC is trying to
reach need the basics of mathematics first. They need better activities
to teach division, multiplication, algebra, etc. 

That's my two cents.

I was really hope OLPC Health can make some progress towards
activity(ies) that would teach kids about the causes of disease,
sanitary habits, basic first aid, etc. That is what we could really use
at our pilot schools in Nepal. I imagine the same is true for India,
Peru, Mexico, etc.

Bryan
OLE Nepal
Kathmandu